Chi: Basic Life Force

The second Treasure is chi (qi). Chi can be thought of as basic life force. Other terms would be prana, orenda, or vital energy. It is what animates us, what gives us life. It warms us, keeps our organs in place and directs all our movements. There are different kinds of chi, including organ chi, and protective, or wei chi. The Chinese, even today, refer to the weather as a kind of chi.

One of the more familiar types of chi, at least for those of us who have experienced acupuncture, is meridian chi. This type of chi travels throughout our body in specific pathways or meridians, linking organs to each other. This is what acupuncturists tap into when they insert needles.

We get chi from the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. This is why it is so important to eat fresh, healthy food. Poor eating habits—eating too many processed foods with little chi in them will, in turn, produce poor chi in our bodies.

By understanding that all things in the universe are just different expressions of chi, one can see why the sages have always said, “All things are one, and the one is all things.”

The Three Treasures

A major practice of Taoist internal alchemy is the transformation of jing, chi and shen, often translated as essence, energy and spirit, also known as nadi, prana, and bindu in Sanskrit and tsa, lung, and thigle in Tibetan. It is in refining these three energetic areas of the body that the Taoists reached enlightenment or what they called Immortality.

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THREE TREASURES. In Taoist internal alchemy (nei dan) the Three Treasures are jing, said to reside in the kidneys and rule sexual and creative energy as well as the body constitution; chi or life energy, which has many functions in the body—circulation, digestion, breathing, holding the organs in their place, the immune system etc.; and shen or spiritual energy, which is said to reside in the heart and also regulates cognitive function as well as consciousness. The goal in internal alchemy is to transform the jing into chi, the chi into shen and then the shen back to wuji (primordial void) and then to Tao. This is done by a combination of meditation, visualization, breathwork and various chi gong practices, including sexual yoga.
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The first of the Three Treasures is jing. This is sometimes referred to as prenatal chi and is a combination of the chi of both of our parents at the moment of conception. Jing regulates our hormonal and reproductive systems, controls our growth throughout life, and regulates our central nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord and bone marrow. It also governs our constitution.

It is said that it takes seven mouthfuls of food to make one drop of blood. It then takes seven drops of blood to make one drop of jing. This is why it is called essence and considered extremely precious. This is one of the reasons that, in Taoist thought, sexual activity is not advised if both or even one of the parents is under the influence of alcohol, seriously unhealthy, or even emotionally overwrought. This will result in the baby being born with poor jing, and hence a poor constitution. Jing is said to reside in our kidneys and is also the repository of our creative and sexual energy. To the Chinese, sexual essence governs not only our sex drive and the reproductive system but our creative energy as well. Someone with strong jing will also have strong kidney energy, which translates to a solid energy body with lots of creative juices flowing.

Changing Mental Patterns: Hypnosis

Hypnosis is actually the safest and most effective method of adjusting probabilities by changing mental patterns. The hypnotic state can be used to greatly enhance learning ability as well as creativity and the healing of the body. The average individual is functioning within an incomplete trance state with a greatly repressed unconscious. The integration of the conscious and unconscious levels of perception can be greatly enhanced by the use of medical hypnosis. The possibilities of combining Chinese medicine with hypnosis and chi gong have tremendous potential for optimum healing.

The ultimate potential of hypnosis has not been fully explored by Western science. The ability of the mind to access information using suggestion is a probable future use of hypnosis combined with thought experimentation. The story of how Rachmaninov regained his creative excellence after daily hypnotic therapy is a good example of a non-pharmaceutical means of integrating the waking consciousness with the creative unconscious. The creative unconscious, which actively seeks an artistic integration with the waking world of conscious reality can enhance the performing aspects of the self.

Much of success in any field of inquiry is dependent upon the performance level of the individual, and this level can be greatly increased using suggestion. Any specific skill or creative ability can be tremendously enhanced in an extremely short period of time using hypnotherapeutic methods. This includes both physiological and mental changes, both of which improve the performance of the individual. Chi gong includes hypnosis and self-hypnosis; it is a method of combining energy cultivation with trance as a means of generating health and longevity. It also leads to kundalini activation.

Whatever creative project a person is working upon in waking reality is often the subject of dreams. These dreams can be guided and shaped with hypnotic suggestion so that it affects the conscious and unconscious level, and ultimately the integration of both. In terms of Western science, hypnosis is the key to consciousness integration because it is the only non-pharmaceutical means in Western medicine to unite the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind.

Enhancing creativity as well as longevity should be the goal of medical science. Each individual has the ability to rapidly evolve to greater levels of perception by the correct use of hypnosis.

If used incorrectly, hypnosis has resulted in false memory recovery syndrome. The mental compliance aspect between the hypnotherapist and individual is also threatening to the Western concept of individuality. Hypnosis was the original basis of Freud's work. The Western concept of the unconscious comes from his observations after he administered post-hypnotic suggestion to individuals. The definition of neurosis as a repressed unconscious "id" which must be controlled by the superego, represents a view of inner conflict as the basis of Western culture. The conflict between the id and the superego is the basic duality, which is unified through the completion stage of meditation. The conjunction of opposites actually represents the unification of the id and the superego, which results in an integration of perception.

Hypnosis works so well medically that it should be included in all future scientific endeavors. Very few scientists have understood that an integration of unconscious and conscious information will lead to greater discoveries and breakthroughs. Western culture values speed above any other commodity and hypnosis can be used as a means to greatly increase the speed of creative discovery in any scientific field. Creative discovery leads to greater truth, the goal of science as a whole.

What is the Kundalini?

In the writings of the Indian expert on kundalini, Gopi Krishna, we find the following: Heaven has planted in the human body a powerful reservoir of psychic energy that, when roused to activity, can lead to transcendental states of consciousness, genius, and supernormal psychic gifts.

Though millions of ordinary people may know about the breakthroughs in astronomy, medicine, chemistry, and other branches of science, hardly anybody is familiar with a far more important development: the almost unbelievable potential lying dormant in their own brain. It is this power center in the human body that the sages in India knew as Kundalini and that adepts in other parts of the world called by names as varied as the “sun behind the sun” and the “philosopher’s stone.”
-Gopi Krishna, Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man

What is this kundalini that we are talking about here? To understand kundalini we must understand the term prana, which means something quite close to the Chinese chi. Prana is life energy and, like chi, can be linked to the breath. Also, like chi, it is the original energy that gives life to and supports all of our physical, mental and even emotionalactivities. As an old saying goes, “Where there is breath, there is life.” We can go without food or even water (as in some yogic practices in India as well as in China) for days, weeks, or even months at a time but we cannot go for more than a few minutes without breathing.

Many yogic practices are about strengthening or purifying the prana or life force. The specific aspect of the life force that is called kundalini is said to reside deep in the first chakra of the body, lying coiled there like a snake. The image of a snake rising through the spinal core is used to describe the awakening of the kundalini energy. This energy called the kundalini is the juncture where the body meets the other elements of consciousness. Activation of the kundalini spreads this primal energy up along channels called nadis, through the knots of the chakras. Or course to do this one needs proper coaching. Although occasionally pain is described, usually the sensations of heat, pleasure, and even ecstasy are reported.